A good deed is a mother of sorrow ( Saint Isaac the Syrian )

A good deed is a mother of sorrow. From sorrow comes humility, and humility receives a blessing. The reward then follows not after the good deed, or the effort because of it, but after the humility that came through them. If there is an absence of humility, then the good deeds are useless.

Saint Isaac the Syrian

Crying out to Him in sorrow ( Saint Isaac the Syrian )

God is close to the heart of the one that cries out to Him in sorrow. Even if a person is sometimes exposed to some type of physical deprivations or other sorrows, God manifests all types of compassion to the soul, commensurate to its level of suffering.



Saint Isaac the Syrian,

Eternal Life ( Saint Isaac the Syrian )

Just as each man enjoys the perceptible sun, depending on the purity and receptivity of his power of sight, and just as illumination from one lamp varies in a house, although the light is not divided into many lights, so in the future age all the righteous will abide indivisibly in one realm, but each, according to his own capacity, is illumined by one noetic Sun, and, according to his worthiness, attracts joy and gladness to himself, even though from one air, from one place, throne, sight and image. And no one sees the measure of his friend, both higher and lower, lest, if he see the superior grace of his friend and his own deprivation, this be a cause of sorrow and grief for him. There, each, according to the grace given to him, is glad inwardly in his measure. Outside them all is one sight and realm ­ and besides these two degrees, I understand just one realm on high and another below, in the midst of them is variety in a diversity of gifts. 


Saint Isaac the Syrian

The eyes of the soul ( Saint Isaac the Syrian )

What the bodily eyes are to sensory objects,the same is faith to the eyes of the understanding that gaze at hidden treasures.Even as we have two bodily eyes,we possess two eyes of the soul,as the Fathers say;yet both have not the same operation with respect to divine vision.With one we see the hidden Glory of God which is concealed in the natures of things;that is to say,we behold His power,His wisdom, and His eternal providence for us,which we understand from the magnitude of His governance on our behalf.With this same eye we also behold the heavenly orders of our fellow servants.With the other,we behold the glory of His Holy nature.When God is pleased to admit us to spiritual mysteries,He opens wide the sea of faith in our minds.

Repentance is given to the sons of men as grace after grace,for repentance is a second regeneration by God.That of which we have received an earnest by baptism, we receive as a gift by means of
repentance.Repentance is the door of mercy, opened to those who seek it.By this door we enter into the mercy of God, and apart from this entrance we shall not find mercy.'For all have sinned',according to divine Scripture,'being justified freely by His grace.'Repentance is the second grace and is begotten in the heart by faith and fear.

Fear is the paternal rod that guides our way until we reach the spiritual paradise of good things;and when we have attained thereto,it leaves us and turns back.
Paradise is the love of God,wherein is the enjoyment of all blessedness,and there the blessed Paul partook of supernatural nourishment.When he tasted there of the tree of life,he cried out, saying,'eye that hath not seen,nor ear heard,neither have entered into the heart of man,the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him'. Adam was barred from this tree through the devil's counsel.

The tree of life is the love of God from which Adam fell away,and thereafter he saw joy no longer,and he toiled and labored in the land of thorns.Even though they make their way in righteousness,those who are bereft of the love of God eat in their work the bread of sweat,which the first-created man was commanded to eat after his
fall.Until we find love,our labor is in the land of thorns,and in the midst of thorns we both sow and reap,even if our seed is the seed of righteousness, and in every hour we are pricked by the thorns,and
however much we render ourselves righteous,we live by the sweat of our brow.
But when we find love,we partake of heavenly bread and are made strong without labor and toil.The heavenly bread is Christ, Who came down from Heaven and gave life to the world.This is the
nourishment of the angels.The man who has found love eats and drinks Christ every day and hour and hereby is made immortal.;He that eateth of this bread,;He says,;which i will give him,shall not see death unto eternity.'Blessed is he who eats the bread of love,which is Jesus!He who eats of love eats Christ,the God over all,as John bears witness, saying,'God is love.'

Wherefore,the man who lives in love reaps life from God,and while yet in this world,he even now breathes the air of the resurrection;in this air the righteous will delight in the resurrection.Love is
the kingdom,whereof the Lord mystically promised His disciples to eat in his Kingdom.For when we hear Him say,'Ye shall eat and drink at the table of My Kingdom,;what do we suppose we shall eat,if not love?Love is sufficient to nourish a man instead of food and drink.
This is the wine that 'maketh glad the heart of man.'Blessed is he who drinks of this wine! Profligates have drunk this wine and felt shame; sinners have drunk it and have forgotten the pathways of stumbling;drunkards have drunk this wine and become fasters,the rich have drunk it and desired poverty;the poor have drunk it and been made rich with hope;the sick have drunk it and become strong;the unlearned have taken it and been made wise.

As it is not possible to cross over the great ocean without a ship,so no one can attain to love without fear.This fetid sea,which lies between us and the noetic paradise,we can cross with the boat of
repentance, whose oarsmen are those of fear.But if the oarsmen of fear do not pilot this barque of repentance wherewith we cross over the sea of this world to God,we shall be drowned in the fetid
sea.Repentance is the ship,and fear is the pilot; love is the divine haven.
Thus fear sets us in the ship of repentance, transports us over the foul sea of this life(that is,of the world),and guides us to the divine port, which is love.Hither proceed all that labor and are afflicted and heavy laden in repentance.When we attain love,we attain to God.
Our way is ended and we have passed unto the isle that lies beyond the world,where is the Father,and the Son,and the Holy Spirit,to Whom be glory and dominion,and may He make us worthy of His
glory and His love through the fear of Him.

Amen.

Saint Isaac the Syrian 

The meaning of Life ( Saint Isaac the Syrian )

Life in the world is like a manuscript of writings that is still in
rough draft.When a man wishes or desires to do so,he can add

something or subtract from it,and make changes in the writings.
But the life in the world to come is like documents written on clean
scrolls and sealed with the royal seal, where no additions or deletion is possible.
Therefore,so long as we are found in the midst of change,let us
pay heed to ourselves;and while we have power over the manuscript of our life,which we have written by our own hand,let us strive earnestly to add to it by leading a good manner of life,and let us erase from it the failings of our former life.
We have power to erase our debts from it as long as we are here.And God will take into account every change we make
in it,so that we may be deemed worthy of eternal life before we go before the King and He sets His seal upon it.
For so long as we are in this world,God does not affix His seal either to what is good or to what is evil,even up to the moment of our departure when the service of our fatherland is completed and we set out upon our journey.
And as the blessed Mar Ephraim says,we should make our soul
like a ready ship that knows not when a wind will come upon it,or
like an army that knows not when the trumpet of battle will sound,or like a tenant who knows not when the master of the house will give order to depart,And if,he says,merchants are so well prepared for the sake of a little gain,though they will perhaps soon return from their voyage,how much more should we make ourselves ready,and prepare ourselves in advance,before the coming of that decisive day, that bridge and door into the new age
May Christ,the mediator of our life,grant us to arrive at that decisive judgement in full preparation, He that hath glory,worship,and thanksgiving unto the ages.
Amen.

Prayer rule

Saint Isaac the Syrian says:
A small but always persistent discipline is a great force,for a soft drop,falling persistently,hollows out hard rock. 

Faith

                                

   Faith is the door to mysteries.What the bodily eyes are to sensory objects,
the same is faith to the eyes of the intellect that gaze at hidden treasures.

    Even as we have two bodily eyes, we possess two eyes of the soul,
as the Fathers say : yet both have not the same operation with respect
to divine vision.

   With one we see the hidden glory of God which is concealed in the
natures of things, that is to say , we behold His might, His wisdom, and
His eternal providence for us which we understand by the magnitude
of His governance on our behalf.

   With the same eye we also behold the heavenly orders of our fellow
servants. With the other we behold the glory of His holy nature.
When God is pleased to admit us to spiritual mysteries, He opens
wide the sea of faith in our minds.


Saint Isaac the Syrian
( Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian, Homily 46 )

On guarding oneself

                                
He who restrains his mouth from speech, guards his heart from the passions.
The man who cleanses his heart from the passions, beholds the Lord at every
moment and he whos e meditation is always upon God, drives away the
demons from himself and uproots the seed of their wickedness.

   
Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian

Repentance - The Ship that brings us to the Divine Harbor (Saint Isaac the Syrian )

Saint Isaac the Syrian compares our life in this world to crossing the sea in a ship.

Just as it isn't possible for someone to cross the great sea without a ship, so someone can't reach love without fear. We can cross the tempestuous sea placed between us and the spiritual paradise only with the ship of repentance, borne by the oarsmen of fear. If these oarsmen of fear don't handle the ship of repentance well, by which we cross the sea of this world toward God, we will be drowned in it. Repentance is the ship, fear is the rudder, love the divine harbor. So fear puts us in the ship of repentance and we cross the tempestuous sea and it guides us to the divine harbor, which is love where all those who labor and have been enlightened by repentance arrive. And when we have reached love, we have reached God. And our journey has ended and we have reached the island which is beyond this world.








Notice how he emphasizes that it is only with this "ship of repentance" that we can reach our goal. Repentance is essential to arrive at the "divine harbor." It is the fundamental way we move toward perfection and a virtuous life of love based on God's grace. It is because of our desire for God's love, and to love others that we repent.


Ref: Orthodox Spirituality, p 140